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Friday, October 5, 2012

Review: Eve by Anna Carey

Eve (The Eve Trilogy #1)
By Anna Carey
Publisher: Harper

To Sum It Up: Eve has known nothing else save for the school where she has spent the majority of her life. The school is a refuge for orphaned girls who lost everything after the plague, a deadly virus that decimated the world's population. The day before graduation, Eve catches a troubled girl, Arden, escaping campus. Before leaving, Arden warns Eve about the dangers of graduating: the girls are merely detained in the school to be kept healthy until they are old enough to produce babies. The graduates will spend the rest of their lives repopulating the world. Learning what her future entails, Eve knows she must run. Outside the school is completely different, and only with the help of Arden and Caleb, a young man living in the wild, does Eve have even the slightest chance of surviving. The three struggle to reach Califia, a survivor camp and their only hope, but with government officers searching for Eve and the common dangers that come with living in a broken society, Eve will have to do much more than struggle.

Review: My woes with pretty covers continue with the beguiling Eve. I was ever so fascinated with the cover and the promise of an entertaining dystopian that I expected Eve to be nothing less than mesmerizing. I wouldn't say that I was awfully misled, but I do feel a little deceived. Why couldn't the story keep up with cover?!

There are a few things that I found redeeming about the book, one of those being Arden, Eve's not-so-friend. I liked Arden; the girl was smart and could pretty much handle anything. I enjoyed her sarcasm and truly respected her for taking Eve under her wing like she did. Eve was more than a nuisance, but Arden kept her around anyway. Kudos to you, Arden!

Eve, on the other hand, is one of the chief reasons why I disliked the book. I felt that Eve was ridiculously naive to the point where she could only cause harm. Here, I'll give you guys an example. Ahem: Eve is strolling along on the Outside when she comes across a baby bear. The first thing that comes to Eve's mind is Winnie the Pooh. Ingeniously, Eve goes to befriend the baby cub, which only angers the Mama bear, who is standing a few yards away. I take it that my point is proven or should I go on to explain the bear chasing her? Sometimes I felt like I was the one dragging Eve through the book. I was like her personal coach pushing Eve towards her end goal, and God knows that it took forever!

Another one of those redeeming qualities I mentioned earlier were the flashbacks of Eve with her mother. Eve's mother was extraordinarily strong even as she was wasting away due to the virus. It made the book seem more meaningful. I just thought that those moments were sweet, and they really impacted me. The love between Eve and her mother was more realistic than the attraction between Eve and Caleb. Caleb was a nice lad, strong and smart. But as many readers may know, the parasite called insta-love can ruin everything. Eve fell for Caleb way too fast. As the reader, I was led to assume that the fast paced infatuation was just a cause of Eve's separation from males. Caleb is the first boy Eve has ever met, so you can't really blame the girl for falling for him. Ergo, folks, we are left with something far more worse than insta-love: fake love. For a book with a heavy romance theme this is really unacceptable.

My list of grievances continues with my issue concerning the world-building, or lack thereof. Eve was unbelievable, and I mean that in the truest sense of the word. I did not buy that this awful virus killed off enough people that this dictator (they call him a “king” in the book but we all know that's not the case) assigns orphans to labor camps. There are labor camps for boys where they do work and such, and there are labor camps for girls where they reproduce—I would just like to say that I am quite proud of this play on words. I couldn't picture myself in the world, and I sure couldn't picture myself attending one of the schools. It was an interesting premise, that's for sure; the execution, however, needed more work.

Geez. I hope I didn't turn anyone away from reading this book. Eve did keep me reading until the very end, which I guess is every book's goal. So by that standard, Eve wasn't a remarkable read for me, but it was decent. In the end, I think it caused me more stress than enjoyment, worrying about Eve and all.

All in All: My opinion of Eve is just that—my opinion. Even though I didn't find it terribly fascinating, it doesn't mean that someone else won't. I encourage everyone to read the book for themselves; I'm curious to see what other people think.